My indication to the company to retire from the business, announced today, comes after a wonderful and exciting 46 years plus in the media industry in both New Zealand and Australia.

There will be plenty of time for me to talk to you before I retire, but I want to take this opportunity of thanking every one in Melbourne Publishing and right across Fairfax who has worked with me over the past very eventful six years.

It has been a tremendous period of both achievement and great developments in a marketplace that has been, as always, challenging and demanding.

I have been asked three times in the past 18 months to defer my retirement plans to assist the company make a number of changes and I am happy to have done so and play my part.

There comes a time, however, in everyone’s career when the baton, so to speak, must be handed on.  I retire from Fairfax at a time of great change and of exciting opportunities for all of you as the company works on a new chapter of development.

I can say one thing for sure:  I feel I have had a stellar career in our business with two editorships and managing four publishing companies on both sides of the Tasman.

My career in newspapers has been particularly exciting, starting out at a journalist and becoming an editor at a young age, first editing a weekend sports paper, and then being fortunate enough to have edited Wellington’s The Evening Post in the 1980s, a time of spectacular political, economic and societal change in the New Zealand.

I went on to a series of management roles, notably guiding The Nelson Mail as General Manager from the red into profit.  My period in Christchurch as General Manager of The Press came at a time when a wealthy American launched a challenger daily paper and we successfully held our market and eventually saw the newcomer, the first daily launched in New Zealand for more than 100 years, fail.

I returned to my home town of Wellington and led the project to merge the city’s two daily papers into one, thus creating The Dominion Post which, on the purchase by Fairfax Media Ltd, became the flagship paper of the group.  It was doubly gratifying to have won New Zealand Newspaper of the Year with the DomPost.

My invitation to take over all the operations of Fairfax in Victoria and become publisher of The Age and our communities and regional papers under the company’s then structure in 2005 was a wonderful opportunity which I relished and which, working with so many talented people, we had many wins.  It was great to have contributed towards The Age and then the Sunday Age taking out the Newspaper of the Year awards.  We also very successfully introduced new structures, disciplines, products and initiatives into our business.

I have worked closely with four CEOs during that period in which our Melbourne businesses continued to perform and contribute strongly, often leading the way with initiatives and masthead developments.  I was always proud to have been “the Melbourne voice” at board presentations and to have had endorsement of the many the achievements of our Melbourne team.

Our papers – and finding ways to keep them healthy – have been my almost total involvement, but I certainly am proud to have been part of rehousing The Age and the rest of the Melbourne businesses into our wonderful new building, Media House.

I have enjoyed being involved on a number of industry and other forums, and also participating in community events, whether it is the Christchurch Arts Festival, or the Melbourne Fashion Festival, both as a director, and contributing to other Melbourne forums.

So now it’s about time I did some things that I have put on the backburner for so many years, like stepping up my desire to travel extensively.  There is also a wish to get back to some writing – I think there’s a book on my media involvements and some of the characters in both New Zealand and Australia lurking in me, too.

So everyone – thanks for the journey.  Melbourne has such a fine team.  We have so many great people.  It’s been a pleasure knowing you and working with you.

Regards,

Don

Subject: All Fairfax Media staff announcement

Colleagues

As some of you have heard, Don Churchill announced his intention to retire at the senior management conference held yesterday.  While I am pleased for Don, I must say that this is a sad day for Fairfax.  I have worked with Don for the past five years and his wise advice and counsel has been hugely valuable to me and the wider organisation.  This has been particularly evident as we put together the new Metro group.

Don has been in the media and publishing industry for over 46 years and had indicated to the company some time ago of his intention to retire.  However, we asked him to stay on to assist us through a number of changes and developments, originally through the relocation to Media House, and more recently through the introduction of new strategies and company reorganisation.

There are few people who have had such a long and successful media career in both Australia and New Zealand and, in fact, led teams that won such accolades at Newspaper of the Year for papers in each country.

Don was charged with reinvigorating the Age operations in Melbourne after a period of centralised management from Sydney and we appreciate that he achieved those objectives, and developed strong local teams which drove very strong results in an ever-challenging media environment.

Please join me in wishing Don the best for the future.

Jack Matthews

CEO Metro Media

As a young man — and having been raised a Catholic might have helped — he heard the rhetoric of the profession. Words such as truth, public interest and accountability. And, being somewhat naive, he believed it. And tried to apply it.

He is older and wiser now and less naive, more able to balance and judge and push when things are soft and bide his time when they are hard. To choose his battles, and respect his own limitations and the limitations of his employers. Yet scratch him and you will find that he still has those inconvenient beliefs — the blessing and burden of vocation.

So, was it a good or bad week for journalism?

The ways in which it was bad are obvious. The doings of journalists on Fleet Street — not only those who were employed by the Murdoch organisation — bring us all into disrepute by association. If the rest of us don’t make it very clear that we part of the solution, then we will be seen, rightly, as part of the problem.

So it is that among conscientious journos and editors there is an increased interest — I hope not mere window dressing — on codes of ethics and internal media organisation codes of conduct. News Limited’s CEO John Hartigan has been in discussions with the chair of the Australian Press Council, a body that only recently the industry was cutting back on.

I suspect at least a few journos have been reading codes and thinking about ethics in the past week. And all of this can only be good. We have to make it last. Newsroom managements have to make it matter. We need training sessions, discussions, walking the walk and penalties for those (and there are many of them) who speak and behave and sneer as though codes of ethics are somehow counter to good, hard-hitting journalism.

But in another way, it has been an astonishingly good week for journalism. One of the best in recent memory. One of the best since Watergate.

What is now clear is that the News of the World scandal — or perhaps we should call it the Fleet Street scandal — is about more than just journalists. It is about wide corruption. It is about the way things are done. It is about understandings, nods and winks and willful blindnesses among media managements, police and politicians.

And how was it exposed? Who on earth would do such a thing? Who stands slightly outside, looking in? Who regards it as their job to investigate, take information and unauthorised disclosures form disgruntled ex-employees, victims and numerous sources with mixed motives, then distill this into revealing narrative?

Who would keep doing that hard and dirty work, mostly thankless, not just for days or weeks but for years? Who would tolerate angry attacks, threats of legal action and an air of embarrassment when they showed their face in public, or even among their colleagues?

Well, only a journalist such as The Guardian’s Nick Davies and his editor Alan Rusbridger.

Not all journalists. After all, every day we see talented journalists who are prepared to write for their editor, or their contacts, not their public.

Certainly, non-journalists might blow the whistle on corruption, but who would listen, when so many have vested interests in selective deafness? Only certain kinds of media organisations.

So it was a good week for journalism.

Yet also, in Australia, bad.

One of the likely outcomes of not only the events of this week but the age of Rupert Murdoch and the bigger trends in media is that News Corporation might break up, or be run by people who lack Murdoch’s attachment to news outlets. News Corporations best assets, from a business point of view, are to do with entertainment and movies. Only the will of the old man keeps these harnessed to journalism.

So if Rupert loses control of his empire — and I think this is only a question of when, not if — it is likely that the newspapers will be spun off, or at least that a firm accountant’s measure will be run over them.

That means, gentle reader, that we are likely to lose The Australian, which at best breaks even and probably not even that.

I, with many others, have and will continue to be extremely critical of some of that newspaper’s doings. I think it contains some of the best, and the worst, of Australian journalism. But losing it would be a very bad thing. It means Australia would not have a general interest national daily newspaper.

Fairfax Media is probably fatally weakened at present. It has been laying off journalists, and it is said that the main Fairfax mastheads are slipping into the red, and there are real questions about the sustainability of even a reduced operation.

And while the tabloids are stronger, they too are declining assets.

In other words, Australia is on the brink of losing a welter of journalistic capacity. This is a civic emergency.

I am ambivalent about the present calls for an inquiry into media. We already have the Convergence Review, and any new inquiry would have to define what it was going to do that is different.

I need to know what is being proposed before I can say whether I am for or against it. But I can see sense and a need for an inquiry into how we are to retain society’s journalistic capacity. An inquiry that makes that issue the subject of headlines and political concern and water cooler conversation.

I am an optimist by nature, and I also look with hope to the capacity of new content delivery systems, and new ways of society informing itself. I look at young people who hear and believe the rhetoric. Not all of them are journalists. They are discovering new and in some ways healthier ways of informing and being informed.

There is a great deal that journalists have done wrong. There is a great deal that carries the label of journalism but does not deserve to be so called. There is corruption and venality in the craft.

Yet it is also the case that when a large part of society goes badly wrong, when people are engaged in double think — knowing that something bad is going wrong, yet simultaneously able to tell themselves that they don’t know, or that it is not their job to intervene, or that it is not really bad enough to justify action — then the best chance of it being exposed is for a journalist, paid a decent though not excessive salary, backed by a brave editor and a management that understands.

A journalist with skill and experience in the difficult job of finding out things.

Yes, it is complicated and compromised. Yes, it is quaint and old fashioned and not at all up with the latest understandings about the contingency of truth or the problematised nature of cultural practice.

But we must not lose the possibility that journalism, at its best, represents.

Having said that, last night the telecast of the UK parliament was good, and it was great that ABC24 stayed with it. But live feed from the BBC is not hard, I would have thought.

Earlier last night I was appearing on The Drum, speaking to an unattended camera from a gas lift chair that didn’t lift in a corner of the ABC offices in Adelaide. (In Adelaide, I don’t have access to Sky News, hence greater than usual frustration). That gave me some insight into just what a threadbare operation News24 is. Not much company in the Sydney control room, I think.

So, it is good that ABC24 is there, I reckon, providing free to air coverage of things that matter.

But a bit more news sense, please. A bit more liveliness. A bit more willingness to take a chance and cut live.

And more money, which will only be resolved if next year’s triennial funding submission goes well.

Here is the media release. Comments invited.

MEDIA RELEASE:

ABC News 24: AUSTRALIA’S MOST WATCHED NEWS CHANNEL

ABC News 24, Australia’s first free-to-air 24 hour television news channel, celebrates its one year anniversary tomorrow.

In the past year, ABC News 24 has become Australia’s most watched news channel. It now reaches more than 3 million viewers per week across both metropolitan and regional areas. In the five major cities it reaches more than double the viewers of any other news channel.

ABC News 24 has grown significantly in 2011. The channel’s average weekly reach in regional Australia has increased from 11.8% in 2010 to 16.7 %, and increased from 10% to 13.1% in metropolitan areas.

It has made news free and accessible to Australians wherever they want it through television and live web and mobile streams. The ABC News 24 live web stream on ABC News online and ABC iview has achieved 2.8 million plays so far this year.

Viewing highlights across the day include: ABC News Breakfast, Afternoon Live, the lively discussion program The Drum and the evening international and national news program, The World.

ABC News Director, Kate Torney said: “It has been a strong and encouraging start for our news channel. ABC News 24 has provided Australians with access to live television news coverage of big stories as well as improved access to the best of our existing news and current affairs content.

“Our aim, on all our platforms, is to provide Australians with the most comprehensive, independent and up-to-date news and analysis of local, national and world events from an Australian perspective, and ABC News 24 is doing that,” Ms Torney said.

“This has been an unbelievable time to launch a news channel. ABC News 24’s national political coverage has tracked Australian politics from the 2010 election all the way to the current Carbon Tax debate,” said ABC News 24 Controller Gaven Morris.

“We have continued to build our audience, reached out to regional Australia as well as the major cities and found new ways to deliver news to Australians.”

ABC News 24 provided immediate and compelling coverage of the devastating floods in eastern Australia and the impact of Cyclone Yasi. The channel’s top rating program this year is the Queensland Flood ABC News Special (broadcast on 12 January) which averaged 110,000 and a 3.5% audience share. During the Queensland flood coverage, the channel’s average weekly reach peaked with 3 million viewers (19.8%).

Using the ABC’s international correspondents and the resources of its international broadcast partners, it provided live coverage of events including: the Chile miners’ crisis, the Pike River mine disaster in New Zealand, the earthquake in Christchurch, the catastrophic tsunami in Japan and the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt and across the Middle East.

When the tsunami struck Japan 11th March, ABC News 24 achieved an audience share of 3.3% – its highest prime-time viewing share – as people tuned in to watch the live, rolling coverage throughout the evening.

“The past year has shown us that there is a demand for a 24 hour news channel, free and accessible for all Australians, and people are switching on to it, particularly during times of crisis. We are always working to improve the service and the channel will continue to grow. We aim to make ABC News 24 not only the best possible live news service but also the television home of informed discussion and debate,” Mr Morris said.

In addition, over the next 12 months, ABC News 24 will introduce exciting new content:

Expanded news programs on the weekends.
A thought-provoking series of discussion programs on the big questions facing Australia’s future called ‘Future Forum’, a joint venture between ABC News 24 and the H.C. Coombs Policy Forum at the ANU.
More comprehensive and broader international coverage through partnerships with other international news broadcasters.
The channel will also expand its sports coverage and have a stronger focus on social media.

Source: OzTam
ABC News 24 has grown significantly in 2011 with half a million more viewers tuning in each week. Average weekly reach across weeks 1-29, 2011 is 2 million (13.1% of the 5 City Metro population) compared to an average of 1.5 million (10%) in 2010 (weeks 32-52).

In 2011 YTD (weeks 1-22), ABC News 24’s Regional average weekly reach is 1,156,000 (16.7% of the Regional TV population), compared to an average of 797,000 (11.8%) in 2010.

PM: Sorry, you’ll just have to be a little bit louder.

JOURNALIST: (inaudible) testimony of Rupert Murdoch last night (inaudible)

PM: Looking at all of these events in the United Kingdom, I think Australians have been disturbed by them and I think they’ve been disturbed to see the reports in the UK and the kind of things that have been happening with telephone hacking and the like and I think that does mean that Australians here look at News Limited and they’ve probably got some hard questions that they want answered.

On the individual testimony of Mr Murdoch, or anybody else who appeared, I’m not going engage in running commentary on that, but of course I would say the act that we saw with pie, conduct of that nature is grossly objectionable.

JOURNALIST: (inaudible)

PM: Look, I’m not going to engage in running commentary on testimony, but I do believe Australians watching all of that happening overseas with News Corp are looking at News Limited here and wanting to see News Limited answer some hard questions.

JOURNALIST: Are you saying that News Limited papers here have to answer some questions, or just the British tabloids?

PM: I think it’s inevitable and it happens on other areas of policy in life. When we see a big thing happen overseas it causes us to reflect on circumstances in our own nation, so I’m saying no more or no less than that. When we’ve seen big things happen overseas we’ve then had them influence our national conversation, what we’re talking about. I anticipate that that will continue to happen here.

JOURNALIST: I guess I’m asking, are you casting aspersions on News Limited papers here?

PM: Well, all I’m saying is when big things happen overseas, I’m certainly not making up any conclusions, quite the reverse. All I’m saying is when there’s been a major discussion overseas, when people have seen telephones hacked in to, when people have seen individuals grieving, had to deal with all of this, then I do think that causes them to ask some questions here in our country, some questions about News Limited here, and obviously New Limited’s got a responsibility to answer those questions when they’re asked, and I would say if the boot as on the other foot and there was some major political scandal in the United Kingdom involving politicians, journalists from all newspaper stables, including News Limited, would be beating a path to my door to ask me all about it and what the implications are for Australia.

So, I’m really saying no more than what journalists themselves would view as proper conduct if there was a political scandal overseas.

John Hartigan’s Response to the Prime Minister

July 20, 2011

News Limited chairman and chief executive John Hartigan today described comments by the Prime Minister about News Limited as “unjustified and regrettable”.

The Prime Minister was reported earlier today to have said:

“I do believe that Australians watching all of that happening overseas with News Corp are looking at News Ltd here and are wanting to see News Ltd answer some hard questions.”

Mr Hartigan said: “The Prime Minister’s comments seek to draw a link between News Corporation operations in the UK and those here in Australia. The comments were unjustified and regrettable.

“There is absolutely no connection between events in the UK and our business in Australia.

“There is no evidence that similar behaviour has occurred at News in Australia.

“We have answered every question put to us on this issue openly. If the Prime Minister has more questions we would be happy to respond.

“No one is more appalled or is more concerned about what has happened in the UK than we are. It is an affront to everyone at News in Australia and a slur on the professionalism of our people, especially our journalists,” Mr Hartigan said.

End

The point of a twenty four hour news channel is just that. And those of us who did not have access to Sky News or the BBC last night have to be grateful that were able to watch the Murdoch interrogation, thanks to Auntie.

But FFS! Early in the evening, in the middle of highly interesting and significant evidence from the senior coppers, ABCNews24 broke to a leisurely news bulletin, including pedestrian colour stories and the bloody weather!

And also promos for how up to the minute the channel was with breaking news. Sheesh. Walk the talk, please!

And before that, there were glitches as promos started to run, only for someone to obviously pull the pin.

Now I understand that regular news bulletins are part of the rationale of the station, but once again ABCNews24 displayed an odd reluctance to throw out the normal operations. Doing so was certainly justified. The Murdoch hearings constitute one of the major political stories of the decade. This is what 24hour news services are FOR!

And, unlike when the Japanese earthquake hit, these events should not have taken the ABC by surprise. ABC people I spoke to mid afternoon already knew that while the Murdochs would be on late, the cops were on earlier. Who decided against continuous rolling coverage?

News bulletins are available on ABC 1, and on radio. Why the slowness in throwing to rolling live coverage of events? I don’t understand it.

Regular readers of this blog will judge the extent of frustration by the fact that it pushed me and Caroline Overington into agreeing about something – the ABC’s performance – on Twitter. Other Twitterati were voicing similar fury.

Having said that, once the news update was out of the way, the rest of the rolling coverage was good, taken from the BBC. Or at least it was until 3.15am, when I fell asleep in my armchair.

ear Colleagues:

Today, James and I appeared before a committee of the UK Parliament with regard to the issues connected to the News of the World. We did so to apologize, reiterate the Company’s cooperation with the police, and explain what we are doing to resolve these issues. A copy of the news release we issued today is also attached to this note.

I was shocked and appalled by recent allegations concerning the News of the World, and I am deeply sorry for the hurt that was caused. And we have taken responsibility. I have led this company for more than 50 years and have always imbued it with an audacious spirit. But I have never tolerated the kind of behavior that has been described over these past few weeks. It has no place at News Corporation. These serious allegations made about some of our former employees at the News of the World directly contravene our codes of conduct and do not reflect the actions and beliefs of our many employees.

We are a company of more than 50,000 dedicated men and women who every day bring a deep passion and commitment to their jobs. Our vibrant businesses lead their sectors and our future is strong. We are a great company that has set the pace and created much loved journalism, television and film for six decades and we will continue to do so for years to come.

In regard to the issues at News International, we are taking urgent steps to address the past and ensure that serious problems never happen again.

· The Company has created an independent Management & Standards Committee, to determine new standards that will be clearly communicated and consistently enforced. The Committee is independently chaired by Lord Grabiner QC and has direct governance and oversight from News Corporation Board members, Joel Klein and Viet Dinh.

· The Company will continue to co-operate fully with the authorities wherever the investigations lead. Those who have betrayed our trust must be held accountable under the law. We also welcome and will cooperate with Parliamentary and Judicial inquiries.
· Last week we made the difficult, but necessary decision to close the 168-year-old News of the World and we accepted the resignations of Rebekah Brooks and Les Hinton.
· These actions are all strong signals of the seriousness with which we are addressing allegations of past wrongdoing at the News of the World.
I want all of you to know that I have the utmost confidence that we will emerge a stronger company. It will take time for us to rebuild trust and confidence, but we are determined to live up to the expectations of our stockholders, customers, colleagues and partners.

We are determined to put things right.

Sincerely,

Rupert Murdoch

ear Colleagues:

Today, James and I appeared before a committee of the UK Parliament with regard to the issues connected to the News of the World. We did so to apologize, reiterate the Company’s cooperation with the police, and explain what we are doing to resolve these issues. A copy of the news release we issued today is also attached to this note.

I was shocked and appalled by recent allegations concerning the News of the World, and I am deeply sorry for the hurt that was caused. And we have taken responsibility. I have led this company for more than 50 years and have always imbued it with an audacious spirit. But I have never tolerated the kind of behavior that has been described over these past few weeks. It has no place at News Corporation. These serious allegations made about some of our former employees at the News of the World directly contravene our codes of conduct and do not reflect the actions and beliefs of our many employees.

We are a company of more than 50,000 dedicated men and women who every day bring a deep passion and commitment to their jobs. Our vibrant businesses lead their sectors and our future is strong. We are a great company that has set the pace and created much loved journalism, television and film for six decades and we will continue to do so for years to come.

In regard to the issues at News International, we are taking urgent steps to address the past and ensure that serious problems never happen again.

· The Company has created an independent Management & Standards Committee, to determine new standards that will be clearly communicated and consistently enforced. The Committee is independently chaired by Lord Grabiner QC and has direct governance and oversight from News Corporation Board members, Joel Klein and Viet Dinh.

· The Company will continue to co-operate fully with the authorities wherever the investigations lead. Those who have betrayed our trust must be held accountable under the law. We also welcome and will cooperate with Parliamentary and Judicial inquiries.
· Last week we made the difficult, but necessary decision to close the 168-year-old News of the World and we accepted the resignations of Rebekah Brooks and Les Hinton.
· These actions are all strong signals of the seriousness with which we are addressing allegations of past wrongdoing at the News of the World.
I want all of you to know that I have the utmost confidence that we will emerge a stronger company. It will take time for us to rebuild trust and confidence, but we are determined to live up to the expectations of our stockholders, customers, colleagues and partners.

We are determined to put things right.

Sincerely,

Rupert Murdoch

Dan Cass will be one of them, and he has forwarded me something to help the rest of us while away the time. He asks to be described as a “long time environmentalist fed up with deceptive reporting on climate change by Murdoch media over the years”. But people like him won’t be the only ones to play Murdoch Bingo.

The link is here: